The Temple Of God Is Union With Christ

Exodus 32-34 is an infamous chapter in Israel's history. As Moses ascended Mount Sinai to receive the law from the finger of God, the congregation returned to the idolatry of Egypt and created a golden calf to worship. As Moses descended from Sinai, a great confrontation began between God and his people. It is from this confrontation that Moses, who was afraid to speak before Pharaoh, stands boldly before God and intercedes for the congregation. There are many things that can be developed from this narrative, but I want to focus specifically on how, in this conflict, we see the nature of the relationship between God and his people.


At first, God tells Moses to step aside while he destroys the people and makes a new people out of Moses. Moses begs the Lord to relent for the sake of his own glory, that his name might not be put to shame among the Egyptians. God is merciful and relents. Despite their sin, he will give them the land as he promised, he will drive out all their enemies, but he will not go up in their midst, he will not be among his people, lest he consume them. Here Moses pleads with God to reconsider: "If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?" (Exodus 33.15-16). Moses then makes a very significant plea before God on behalf of the people explaining why they need God: "If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance" (Exodus 34.9). In pleading with God for mercy, Moses teaches us about the necessity of the presence of God.

This confrontation, the mediation of Moses, teaches us some very valuable things to understand our worship today. While Moses was speaking to God on Sinai, the plans for the tabernacle, where God would dwell among his people, were given. When God tells Moses that he will send the Angel of the Lord before them and drive out their enemies and give them the land, he says that he will not be in their midst, lest he consume them. The tabernacle, where God dwells among his people, becomes unnecessary. The new arrangement is one where God will stay at a distance and the people will have the land. Moses responds very peculiarly here, at least from the way many Christians think today. Moses tells God that if he will not be in their midst, there is no point to going any further. The whole covenantal arrangement depends on God being with his people. If God isn't there with them, the whole project fails. Moses proposed arrangement still has a problem, however. The reason God wouldn't go up in their midst was because they are a stiff-necked people and he would consume them. Moses' solution for this is even more astounding than his refusal of God's solution. He asks God to go up in their midst precisely because they are a stiff-necked people. He asks God to pardon their iniquity and make them his inheritance.

The faith of Moses was incredible here. Moses knew that in order to be saved, God must be among his people. It wasn't enough to get all of the earthly blessings of the covenant and yet not attain God himself. By faith Moses knew the answer to Christ's question, "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?" (Matthew 16.26). The very reason that Israel needed God to go up in their midst was because they were a stiff-necked people. They could not save themselves, they couldn't even worship properly themselves. They were a wicked people, and they needed God to forgive them. If God would not tabernacle among them, there would be no sacrifice of atonement, there would be no forgiveness of sins. Moses knew that to gain all of the world but not have Christ was a death sentence.

The tabernacle (later the temple) would be where God put his name, where he dwells among his people. The people were commanded to meet together and worship God, to offer sacrifices, at the temple. God would be present in their midst and would forgive their sins. There is a communication between God and man at the temple. In the temple, God speaks to his people and his people worship him. When we understand the significance of the presence of God, we will understand why the temple is so important. When we understand the temple, we understand worship, the relationship between God and his people.

Today the temple is still where God meets his people. There is no earthly temple, but Jesus Christ is the temple of God. It is in the God-man, Jesus Christ, that God dwells among his people. It was not enough that God should be in the midst of the people, however. God must be in his people, and his people must be in him. As the church is united to Christ in baptism, we are made the temple of God as the Holy Spirit indwells us. We are the temple because Christ is the temple. Since the Garden of Eden, God has sought to expand the temple throughout the entire earth. In the church, God accomplishes this.

What does Moses have to teach us about worship? It is precisely because we are desperately wicked that we need God to dwell among us. But God, who is rich in grace and mercy, loves us so greatly that he goes one step further. He does not just make a place where he dwells among us, he makes us the place where he dwells. Union with Christ is the promise of the temple. This is what Moses saw through faith, and it is the reason why the church joins in worship today. We are the temple of the living God that expands over the face of the whole earth; we are the inheritance of God. The temple of God is the Church united to Christ.